I'll throw mine as first. I was partly involved in the The Zeitgeist Movement. I used to think that they had the only solution to resolving humanities problems. I wasn't a truther but I was convinced that the idea of a resource based economy, RBE, was the only way for humanity to move forward. What made me lose interest was first was the fact that Peter Joseph wasn't willing to get rid of his wrong claims made in his movies, even though this wasn't very scientific of him, and the fact that the movement seemed to really actually go anywhere. Almost all of it was internet based with the only exception one experiment that I know of. Something to do with automated agriculture production. I don't know how that's going but seeing as how I haven't heard of any business taking it up I assume it's still not economically viable. They've been criticized for the lack of evidence they provide and many inside maintain that a large conspiracy among government and business is bent on keeping us from progressing.

(18-03-2013 12:07 AM)Foxcanine1 Wrote: After reading some comments from the embarrassing moments thread I thought it might be interesting to have a thread on strange beliefs that you once held.

These can be anything, magic, conspiracy theories, NWO, cryptozoology, anything.

The only rule is that it can't involve god, religion or politics ( like political parties).

I'm interested in hearing what people have to say.

That we can know "Truth"

Legal Disclaimer: I am right, I reserve the right to be wrong without notice, opinions may change, your statutory rights are not affected, opinions expressed are not my own and are an approximation for the sake of communication.

This goes way back - pre school years, I must have been 4 or 5 years old. I remember this clear as day for some reason.
In my room I had an upholstered, overstuffed stool. I used to turn it upside down, sit in it that way, rock back and forth and pretend I was on a boat.
One day it occurred to me that many people and beings were involved in getting this "boat" to me. There was the tree that gave wood, whatever it was that gave the material for the stuffing and covering (I imagined a field of crops), the people who felled the tree and picked the crops, who cut the wood, who sanded the wood, put the chair together, dug metal for the springs, etc etc etc. (Actually I still think it's amazing how much goes into the most commonplace, inexpensive objects we use).
Anyway, I decided that there was a piece of each in that chair, the spirit of the tree, a piece of spirit of all these different people involved, the crops, the worms that tilled the soil for the crops, etc. etc.
I was fascinated with this. The chair and the entire world and all objects around me became some mystical, live thing, containing a part of the spirit of so many lives (plants, animals and people). I was captivated by the complexity of everything and imagined all objects to be alive in some way. I would pick some object and talk to it and try to get answers from it to see who all was involved in creating it. Sometimes I felt these objects talking back to me.
Just a kid with an overactive imagination trying to make sense of complexity. But I believed this fervently for a year or so, it dominated my thoughts. I could not understand why others could not see this, and why no one paid any attention to objects...
So there, the basis for a new religion!

Science is the process we've designed to be responsible for generating our best guess as to what the fuck is going on. Girly Man

I had a lot of strange beliefs, but that was before I got a reliable internet connection. Then I learned the hard way to google up things before I express an opinion. It takes a dose of masochism to always search for a contrary info first, but it saves the ridicule later.

For example, I believed that gay couples should not adopt children. Then people linked me studies proving that adopted children of gay couples are not worse off, they might be somewhat better, because gays have to work harder to be parents.
I believed there's something quite wrong about the 9/11 attacks. I still don't understand the mechanics of the main two buildings fall, seems completely counter-intuitive to me. But the other buildings and Pentagon, I learned there was nothing strange, it completely jibes with the official version. Now I'd say in any case the cause of attack remains the same regardless of who or how it was done, the American economic and military hegemony (dependent on oil) after the collapse of Soviet Union as the sole competitor, and the injustice around the world.

(18-03-2013 12:26 AM)Foxcanine1 Wrote: I'll throw mine as first. I was partly involved in the The Zeitgeist Movement. I used to think that they had the only solution to resolving humanities problems. I wasn't a truther but I was convinced that the idea of a resource based economy, RBE, was the only way for humanity to move forward. What made me lose interest was first was the fact that Peter Joseph wasn't willing to get rid of his wrong claims made in his movies, even though this wasn't very scientific of him, and the fact that the movement seemed to really actually go anywhere. Almost all of it was internet based with the only exception one experiment that I know of. Something to do with automated agriculture production. I don't know how that's going but seeing as how I haven't heard of any business taking it up I assume it's still not economically viable. They've been criticized for the lack of evidence they provide and many inside maintain that a large conspiracy among government and business is bent on keeping us from progressing.

RBE has nothing to do with TZM. TZM is more of a self-appointed activist group that piggybacked RBE with lots of other messages, some of them correct (the banking system outline), some highly inaccurate or just outright fake. The usual stuff when you let people and opinions rule, something that Jacque Fresco strongly advocates against. Fresco is a professional engineer and he designs efficient structures, devices and factories out of already existing materials and technologies. RBE is the only way forward, because it's basically the way we do things in our families, only on greater and more sophisticated scale. In family we don't proliferate cheap stuff just to make money of our relatives. We try to buy or make the most durable things that will last long. We manage the common resources and we take care of each member of family. RBE is just a way of doing this in a much, much more effective way, on global scale, with machines, computers, technology... Running a family is NOT a rocket science, it can be rationalized with technology and without commercial bullshit.

Fresco just wants to put the technology into practice all at once, because the way market does things, it releases a hundred versions of the diluted technology that slightly improves things, but wastes resources and time and the pure technology then becomes a threat to the market. If something brings in the money, nobody wants to change it or solve the problem away. He wants to do the change through public opinion, to get funds, make a good film to show the public how is it to live in RBE and use this public opinion to pressure governments to sponsor and build a prototype city. This city would prove that the concept works and can be applied anywhere in the world. Of course, if it doesn't work, then we either fix it or don't use it. Fresco wants to give us a tangible proof before we do anything. Seems like worth trying to me.